Fin de Semana

I am so lucky to have a three day weekend. This weekend was pretty gnarly, I experienced a lot of firsts. I saw my first flamenco show, went to my first spanish rock concert, and attended my first spanish soccer game. I guess I saw a lot of things! Oh yea, and we also got the opportunity to try to learn to dance flamenco. Notice I said try, for a reason.

Friday was a great day, no school, just play. I got up late and just chilled. I had a little time before the night of flamenco, so I went on a walk. I posted the pictures of some the amazing views I saw on Friday. I feel like every time I come across a new area of the city, I become enamored with it.

Later, we went to a “gypsy” cave in the socromonte to experience some flamenco dancing. First, they should us some moves, all 20-25 of us in a line, it was a mess. Or should I say, I was a mess. Anyway, it was a good time and I blame my them for not showing us how it was supposed to look first, and instead just throwing us into the pit. Otherwise, I would I would have been a natural. Oh yea, and I was hungry too, that’s the other factor; we didn’t get to eat until after the dance lesson. But when we did sit down to eat, it was great. It was a very nice restaurant in one of the three rooms of the cave that we saw. All the ones that we saw were like columns, long a skinny. I don’t know if they were all like that, but it was very cool. A very cool atmosphere. And finally, we got to see flamenco dancing live, accompanied by some pretty cool live flamenco music. It was all a pretty great experience.

You don’t really get a great idea of the dancing from just the pictures, maybe I’ll post a video too.

Yesterday morning was real decent, I went on a run, here’s some photos……

Last night was Loquillo! The Spanish version of Elvis Presley from the 80s (or so I think). I don’t really know what he’s going for, he’s just original. But anyway, it was a pretty cool experience, I went with my host dad, and my host mom’s brother. My host dad loved it! He was dancing in the aisles, going crazy. Without a doubt he’s a Loquillo fan. I also got to ride in a car, the first time that’s happened since I arrived in Granada, so that was pretty cool too.

This morning I woke up with no expectations, but it turned out to be a pretty fun day too. Loquillo was on the news, they were talking about how it was a nice turnout, and they showed some shots of the concert. Then, my host dad invited me to go with him and his son, Lucas, to a Granada CF game. It was my first Spanish soccer game and first European soccer game that I’ve seen. It was Granada’s B team, so there was only a handful of people watching, but that didn’t take away the excitement for me. Granada played a team from the province of Cadiz, and won 1-0.

After that, as it was a beautiful day today, I skated around town exploring new zones of the city. I find new areas every day and they’re awesome. Today I found the other skatepark of Granada (I think there’s only two). But this one wasn’t hardly anything, however there is a bowl right a around the corner from it that was pretty cool. It’s right in the middle of the sidewalk, there for anyone who dares try to ride over the potholes and cracks that old age has willed it. It was pretty difficult to ride with it’s age and poor design, but it was definitely built for people to skate so it was definitely interesting to come across just smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk. A lot of people liked to watch and I met an Italian guy who is studying English and living in Spain. I was happy to talk to him in Spanish the whole conversation, without him once attempting to try at his English. It’s cool to feel like you’re progressing at a language. I also got chased around by a lot of dogs today, I think Spanish dogs are just different than American dogs. A women asked me if it ever happened to me with the skateboard before, as she tried to catch her dog, and I told her “always.” The dogs are everywhere here and people give them so much more freedom, but it seems like they’re well-behaved enough. It’s not unusual to see a dog waiting for its master outside a panderia and without a leash. Just another one of the cultural differences between here and America, I guess dogs have culture too! Hasta luego and until next time…